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NEWS STORY 
Withholding judgment on Pee-Wee and Pete
Sometimes we're just a little too eager to see
celebrities crash and burn
  
Alan Kellogg  
The Edmonton Journal 
 
Saturday, February 01, 2003
  
Everyone loves a good fall, especially when the fallen
are celebrities known to be pretentious, working in
areas of special sensitivity and/or suspected repeat
offenders.

You wonder if this might not be the case in the matter
of Pete Townshend and Paul Reubens, currently fighting
for their liberty and what's left of their
reputations. Each faces charges involving the
possession of child pornography, an undeniable crime
and societal blight currently regarded as just this
side of serial murder. And let's face it, most of us
have assumed they're guilty, whatever platitudes we
toss off.

New evidence casts doubt, gives us pause and reminds
that there are reasons why we don't live under the
Napoleonic Code.

I have to say as a longtime Pete Townshend watcher,
the revelation that the famously "difficult" aging
rocker was arrested Jan. 13 as part of a U.K.-wide
child-porn sting came as a shock. No one can look into
the hearts and sock drawers of strangers, and it's
especially foolish to judge people's character by
their work. But this seemed inconsistent. Townshend's
claim -- so guileless it came off to most as patent
nonsense --that he had been researching kiddie porn
Web sites for an autobiography that will include dim
recollections of his own childhood sexual abuse is
actually far more in keeping with a long pathology of
self-absorption. 

Earlier this week, the Who guitarist posted a notice
on his Web site that he has received backup copies of
2002 e-mail correspondence detailing his research
plans to the Internet Watch Foundation, a watchdog
group that monitors sick material on the Net. The IWF
has previously maintained there was no such contact,
citing the British Data Protection Act, which
prohibits disclosure of submitted reports without
permission of the author.

"You may recall that ... members of the IWF told the
press that they had never heard from me," writes
Townshend on www.petetownshend.co.uk. "I, of course
know that I did communicate with them several times
last year and they have now supplied us copies of my
e-mails to them, one in August and the others in
November. My lawyers have written to the founder of
the IWF Mark Stephens, who was adamant that they had
never heard from me, for an explanation."

So far that hasn't appeared on the IWF site. Townshend
was released the same day of his arrest without being
charged, although that could come later.

Paul (a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman) Reubens' difficulties
began in 1991, when he was busted by Sarasota, Fla.,
police for masturbating in a movie theatre during an
entertainment called Nancy Nurse.

Somehow, even in a victimless crime, folks weren't
crazy about a children's entertainer -- however
brilliant, as he certainly was -- with a record,
especially something creepy. At any rate, Reubens
certainly paid the price, banished for years to the
gulag of showbiz anonymity.

The latest round began last year, when a teenager made
a complaint about Reubens and his friend, actor
Jeffrey Jones. The complaint was dismissed, but not
before the LAPD searched the homes of both men,
charging Jones with a felony and Reubens with the
lesser misdemeanor offense of possessing pornographic
pictures of a juvenile.

In a gutsy Jan. 21 investigative piece in the Village
Voice, Richard Goldstein casts serious doubts on the
legitimacy of the charge, hinting at a political witch
hunt. It will come as no huge surprise to viewers of
Pee-Wee's Playhouse that Reubens is also a real-life
avid collector of vintage kitsch, including period
erotica, mostly gay. Having scrutinized some 30,000
items they confiscated, the District Attorney's office
concluded they had no case.

With just one day left before the statute of
limitations ran out, "crusading" city attorney Rocky
Delgadillo -- recently elected on a "get tough"
platform -- issued a warrant for Reubens' arrest. If
convicted, he faces up to a year in prison. If not,
well, the damage has already been done.

The material in question is apparently of the nudist
colony/physical fitness genre of the '50s, totally
legal in its day, when no one was concerned that even
(slightly) underage models posed, since nothing
lascivious was supposedly even being implied, much
less acted upon. Standards have changed today,
probably rightly so in some instances as we better
understand the predators. But how far should we go?

Goldstein makes the point that Reubens -- who has
never said -- is assumed to be gay, which might make
all the difference. Interesting, that in the same
jurisdiction, Rob Lowe never faced child-porn charges
for his famous video, which included juvenile girls.
Also interesting that Pete Townshend trumpeted what
seems to have been a fleeting fling with bisexuality
(hear Rough Boys) some years back.

We may find out the truth or we may not. Both Reubens
and Townshend may indeed be guilty. But we should be
careful, very careful, in pillorying our celebrities
in advance, looking beyond the lurid headlines for due
process. 

akellogg@thejournal.southam.ca


=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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